Man searches landfill for wife's engagement ring

A Florida man who accidentally threw out his wife's $10,000 engagement ring later found it by combing through a pile of garbage, ABC News reported Friday.

The night before Halloween, Anna McGuinn handed the ring to her husband, Brian McGuinn, before she took a shower. The idea was for him to put it in her jewelry box. The poor guy must have been a little distracted. The next day, when Anna went to look for the ring, she couldn't find it and, as ABC puts it, Brian "realized he must have thrown it away along with a disposable razor his wife had handed him at the same time" as the ring. Oops.

The trash had already been picked up that morning.

“I was saying to myself, ‘OK, no one died, get a grip,’” Anna told ABC. “Then I started crying again.”

She then called Wheelabrator North Broward, which process the garbage in the area, to see if anything could be done. The company said they could be allowed to search for the ring.

The Sun Sentinel reported that the company outfitted Brian with a protective vest, goggles, and a suit, and identified the garbage where the ring was most likely to be.

"Nastiness you wouldn't believe," Brian told the paper. "It was absolutely disgusting. It stunk beyond belief. The smell was God-awful. Everything unsanitary you could think of crossed my path at least a couple times. I took an extraordinarily long shower and toothbrushes were used."

But it was worth it: Brian found the ring.

"It looked like a screw and I reached down and it looped around my index finger," he said. "I was ecstatic. It was like winning the lottery. It was probably one of the best moments ever."

“I’m not taking it off anymore," Anna told ABC.

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